Director: Raoul Peck
Writer: Raoul Peck
Stars: Damian Lewis
Synopsis: The ultimate and comprehensive documentary film about the exceptional writer George Orwell.
On the surface, Raoul Peck’s Orwell 2+2 = 5 seems like a denser prospect from the documentary filmmaker who gave us the incredibly complex, Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro in 2016. A documentary on one of the most prophetic figures in the history of literature seems like a daunting task, especially when there’s so much material in his archives to choose from. His most well-known work, “1984,” was adapted into a litany of movies and has been analyzed in various ways, with some even using its language to describe what is happening now, in an era where totalitarianism is making a comeback and mass manipulation, through oligarchic control of the media space and on social media itself, has fractured a society to the point of no return.
Of course, Peck will undoubtedly discuss the rise of current-day fascism, from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni, and even alt-right discourse within media itself, from Tucker Carlson to Éric Zemmour and Mathieu Bock-Côté. In the movie’s most powerful montage, Peck parallels Hitler’s rise before the Second World War with the current increase in fascist rhetoric and gestures – from Elon Musk’s Nazi salute to the enthusiastic support of a brainwashed crowd as Javier Milei says, “We grab the bull by the horns!” All of it is interlinked through Orwell’s own writing, mostly in his personal journals, narrated by actor Damian Lewis.
We “meet” Orwell as he knows full well tuberculosis will consume him, and he tries to write as much as possible on his observations before he disappears. As Peck plays clips from the multiple adaptations of 1984, mainly from Michael Anderson and Michael Radford, while also not forgetting the impact Animal Farm had in popular culture, the filmmaker starts to get really ambitious and begins to discuss how his view of the world, in 1948, rings even truer today than when he wrote his literary masterpiece. It’s a lot to take in – and some of it doesn’t work – but the message in how we are doomed to repeat our own mistakes in electing war-hungry despots who sell a message of peace, but only want to destroy the very fabric of society for their own monetary gains, is heard loud and clear.
No Orwell portrait is complete without an analysis of “newspeak,” a term he invented in 1984 to describe controlled language and grammar that would limit a person’s ability to think. There are multiple modern-day examples of such a term that he illustrates. Yet, the most glaring one of them all is linked to how several gubernatorial bodies use precise language to appease the population that what they are doing to another nation – or country – is morally correct, when they are, in reality, committing war crimes. The movie doesn’t shy away from breaking the propaganda that multiple governments have fed the media – and the public – to justify their atrocities in Ukraine and Gaza, going so far as to deconstruct Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s “newspeak.”
While public opinion is slowly shifting on what is currently occurring in Gaza, the terms used by despotic leaders to carefully tell the public that they need their support to decimate an entire population are frightening. Orwell undoubtedly played a large part in “waking up” society to what their leaders don’t want to know. It’s hard to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza. However, dissonance between the total condemnation of Russia’s actions towards Ukraine, while the United States government blindly supported everything Israel was doing, made society even more divided, because, as Peck describes, Netanyahu was able to successfully weaponize the term “antisemitism” to “silence critics of Israeli military action,” while many journalists – and citizens – had justifiable criticisms on their handling of the October 7th attack that was not at all antisemitic.
“Newspeak” thus becomes the primary word Peck will employ to discuss Orwell’s view of the world, and how it relates to the enshittification of modern-day society, through the prism of social media apps turning us into bitter, cynical individuals, and the rise of generative AI slop that prevents any ounce of human emotion and creativity. Students now openly brag about using ChatGPT to complete their school assignments instead of thinking for themselves, and the popularity of AI-generated “art” has diminished a society that once took pride in having creativity as its only weapon against all forms of control. Our minds are ours to keep, and no machine can take away our desire to create.
Yet, as the film shows, the rise of AI poses a threat to the very notions of “creativity” and “individual thought.” To illustrate his point, however, Peck will employ many generative AI images created for the movie, which gives many sections of Orwell 2+2 = 5 a somewhat hypocritical posture. “AI-generated” songs are also used during a section where, to transition from one segment to the next, Peck will fill the runtime with a succession of AI-generated content, as the images become further distorted. Using AI to make a point against AI seems counterproductive, though Radu Jude is also doing this in his version of Dracula (that I have not seen, but will soon), which probably means that more and more auteurs will do the same.
Will this “wake up” AI-obsessed idiots that this “technology” (if we can call it that) serves no purpose, when it comes to art and critical thought? There are purposeful uses, such as in science, to develop vaccines and other potential medical treatments at a faster pace, but most of the CEOs who are investing heavily in artificial intelligence aren’t interested in that. Not because they don’t want to cure cancer, but because they want to fill their pockets as quickly as possible. Curing disease takes time, even with AI. Creating “art” does not. What’s more profitable in the short term? And what does this kill?
When you answer these questions, you’re likely going to come up with the same conclusion as everyone else. I won’t dare reveal it, but the prospects of this world getting any better, through its social and political lens, are relatively low. You probably knew that society is screwed before you saw Orwell 2+2 = 5. Yet, after viewing Peck’s documentary, which contains an extraordinary lucidity in its line of thinking, through the words of a real prophet, you’re definitely never going to think otherwise again.
